What do you think of A-Rod getting hit by a pitch from Ryan Dempster?

New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez was shot in the shoulder by a fastball from the Boston Red Sox’s pitcher Ryan Dempster during Sunday night’s game (photo gallery here).

Combine the fact the two teams have a historically contentious relationship, with A-Rod’s controversial history of drug use and it’s not that surprising fans erupted — both at Fenway Park in Boston and on social media.

Some people cheered Dempter (who is shy of 5,000 likes on his Facebook page compared to Rodriguez’s 1 million-plus), others said the shoulder peg was a display of poor sportsmanship. The consensus was that, while the teams may be deep-seated rivals and Rodriguez one of the less-respected players in Major League Baseball, Dempster’s move was anything but impressive.

“Dempster is a thug and a hypocrite. Yankees retaliated the right way by winning,” wrote Robert James Braathe on Facebook.

“If Dempster has an issue with A-Rod playing then he can take it up with his union. His job on the mound is to get his team a win, not to play judge and jury. Hopefully MLB issues at least a one game suspension against Dempster and makes it clear that this won’t be tolerated,” commented Shannon Maguire.

They were just two of the thousands of comments circulating on social media. Add yours below.